Record LHC collisions mark new era for physics

IMAGINE firing needles across the Atlantic and getting them to collide halfway. That was the technical challenge facing engineers at the Large Hadron Collider this week as they prepared to smash together proton beams at the highest-ever recorded energies.

If successful, the Large Hadron Collider will have busted its own world record for collision energy

The first attempt to achieve collisions at 7 teraelectronvolts – 3.5 TeV in each beam – was scheduled for 30 March. If successful, the machine will have busted its own world record for collision energy, which was set at 2.36 TeV last December.

Achieving collisions at 7 TeV is a milestone, and marks the official start of the LHC physics programme. Experiments around the machine will probe tens of trillions of high-energy collisions over the next 18 to 24 months.

Yet CERN director general Rolf Heuer points out that just lining up the beams to smash together is no mean feat. “The LHC is not a turnkey machine,” he says.

...

To continue reading this premium article, subscribe for unlimited access.